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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29726502">Sokka and Zuko's Story</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cocinelle473/pseuds/cocinelle473'>cocinelle473</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Inscribed on my Heart [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Universe, Falling In Love, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sokka feels inadequate, Zuko feels unloveable, canon adjacent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:36:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,489</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29726502</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cocinelle473/pseuds/cocinelle473</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sokka loves his soulmate words until he doesn't.</p>
<p>Zuko thinks his mean one thing until he doesn't.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Inscribed on my Heart [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2184747</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>351</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sokka and Zuko's Story</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Basically, the most important words that your soulmate says to you are written over your heart in their handwriting.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The rush of childbirth. The frantic feeling of making sure that your child is alive. Being terrified of the blood and what it might mean. The relief of everyone you love being safe.</p>
<p>And then, only then, looking at your child’s tiny, panting chest, reading the words imprinted there. Trying to decipher from handwriting what sort of person your child is meant to be with. Trying to glean meaning from the words that predict your child’s future, hoping that what you find will mean that your child will be safe, or well loved, or live a long and happy life.</p>
<p>Parents see phrases in cramped handwriting (someone with too much to say, they wonder, or maybe someone who never tried to write neatly) or in fluid cursive (someone who appreciates beauty, they theorize, maybe a poet) or in a different language (maybe our child will be a world traveller, they muse).</p>
<p>They read and reread common phrases, <em>I love you</em> or <em>I will never leave you</em> or <em>I do</em>, confident that their children will be well loved.</p>
<p>Some parents get read and obsess over phrases they would rather have left unknown. Things like <em>please, don’t do this</em> or <em>it shouldn’t have been this way</em>.</p>
<p>Some parents, maybe the unluckiest, didn’t get any hints about their children from their chests. They got through the rush and the fear and the relief and then got to stare at their child’s unmarred chest. Maybe their child didn’t have a soulmate, wouldn’t want a soulmate. Maybe they won’t live long enough for this to be an issue.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was late on an inauspicious September night when Kya and Hakoda watched their first child take his first few breaths in the world. Kya smiled at her husband, sweat drying on her face and her eyes tired. Hakoda smiled at his wife and then at his son. Together, they pushed the blanket back from his chest to reveal his soulmate’s most important words.</p>
<p><em>You don’t need to be perfect</em>.</p>
<p>The six words stood out on the baby’s brown chest. They were written in small bold cursive, a period that looked like a bloodstain on the end.</p>
<p>Kya smiled at Hakoda. Their son’s soulmate would be there for him, and would reassure him. Hakoda frowned at Kya. At some point in their son’s life they would fail him. They would make him feel as though he needed to be perfect. Together, they covered the soulmate words and kissed each other and their son.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The sun was high in the sky on a chilly November day when Ursa and Ozai welcomed their first child to his life. Ursa gripped her child tightly and kissed his forehead and each of his cheeks. Ozai kissed his wife and cupped his son’s fragile skull carefully. Ursa shifted her son in her arms to see the small black words on his chest.</p>
<p><em>I want to love you</em>.</p>
<p>Nice, normal words, written in a childish messy handwriting, one used by inventors who didn’t have the time to communicate their ideas and certainly couldn’t take the time to write them down. Ursa wondered if this meant her son would be loved well. Ozai wondered if this meant this son wouldn’t be wanted. Both of them frowned and Ursa kissed her son on the crown of his head, determined to give him love in case his soulmate wouldn’t.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sokka was old enough to learn what the strange symbols printed over his heart meant before he could read them. He stared at them in the mirror before he could read and ran his finger over them again and again. Then he would run into his mothers lap and ask her to tell him again.</p>
<p>“Sokka,” she laughed, “I told you already this morning!”</p>
<p>“Please? Momma, please?”</p>
<p>Kya was not a mother that could hear her son’s pleading still-baby voice and easily deny him anything. So, she would sit him on her knee and trace her finger over his chest and tell him as many times as he asked.</p>
<p>Sokka would smile at her and hug her and thank her and then run off to the mirror to look at the words again.</p>
<p>Sometimes, when he would help his mom make dinner and cut the vegetables crookedly or when he was carving with his dad and the knife shaved off more than meant to, he wouldn’t cry like the other kids, he would beam and proclaim loudly, “It doesn’t matter! My soulmate doesn’t think that I have to be perfect.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Zuko didn’t look at his soulmate words much. His mother told him about them when he was too little to understand what a soulmate was and she told him what it said when he was still too young to try and know their meaning. Then she hugged him and he wrapped his small arms around him as tightly as he could.</p>
<p>His father had only asked him about his soulmate words once.</p>
<p>“Are they going to be a problem?” He said this gesturing his head to where Zuko was rubbing a hand over his chest.</p>
<p>“No, I don’t care about them.”</p>
<p>“Good.”</p>
<p>And then Zuko was dismissed from his father’s study with another nod of the head</p>
<p>Zuko didn’t look at the words much, but he rolled them around his head every day. <em>I want to love you</em>. The meaning changed as he grew. His soulmate wanted him, or his soulmate didn’t but wished they did.</p>
<p>Thinking about it too hard made Zuko feel sick to his stomach. Besides, he really didn’t think that even a soulmate could love him as well as his mother did.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sokka’s words lost their meaning after his mother died.</p>
<p>He wasn’t there for his sister, for his <em>mother</em>, when they needed it most. Sure he didn’t kill his mother, but it was still his fault that Katara couldn’t sleep through the night.</p>
<p>The first night he had clung to his own chest and repeated the words in his mind over and over and over again, hearing his mother say them and feeling her tap his nose. <em>You don’t need to be perfect</em>. Maybe that was true, he didn’t need to be perfect.</p>
<p>But, he did need to be better.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Zuko’s words became more meaningful after his mother left, after his father marred his face.</p>
<p>Their meaning was clear now, as he let his uncle stroke his hair and replace his bandage. It was evident how his soulmate would say the words, full of regret and maybe even loathing. It was obvious that he was so unlovable, that even the person the spirits had destined him to be with couldn’t love him.</p>
<p><em>I want to love you</em>. Meaning that they couldn’t. Meaning the same thing as a whispered <em>I’m sorry</em> and a vanishing act. Meaning the same thing as a scoffed <em>get out of my sight</em> and a fruitless errand.</p>
<p>If he was unloveable, he shuddered to think of what the words were on his soulmate’s chest.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sokka tried not to think about his words anymore. He didn’t really deserve them. He hadn’t deserved them when his father left him behind, didn’t deserve them when the fire prince defeated him with one kick, didn’t deserve them when he couldn’t protect Yue.</p>
<p><em>You don’t need to be perfect</em> his brain supplied while he stared at the moon. But it wasn’t true. He did need to be perfect when there were so many people counting on him. He should have been perfect when his mother had been alone with only Katara to protect her. He should have been perfect when his village needed defending.</p>
<p>He especially should have been perfect for Yue. Yue who had deserved more time and might be alive if Sokka <em>was</em> perfect.</p>
<p>This was the problem. He wasn’t perfect. He knew it and his soulmate knew it. The issue was that this soulmate’s words were telling him he didn’t have to be when he knew that he did.</p>
<p>His own voice had long replaced his mothers when the words played in his mind.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Zuko forgot about his words. When he undressed, he never looked in a mirror. When he needed to be grounded, he clenched his hands together or into fists to avoid gripping at his heart, at the words.</p>
<p>He exchanged money for favours. He exchanged shouted orders and warm meals for obedience. He exchanged scorn for anything that could be construed as caring.</p>
<p>He found the avatar and lost the avatar. And again. And again.</p>
<p>He wanted to go home, where his father wouldn’t look at him like his uncle did. Zuko wanted the cold stare that proved the words on chest. He wanted to be as far from the cups of tea that meant, maybe, that it was possible to love him.</p>
<p>Because that hurt more. If it wasn’t some part of his nature or his fate overall, then his soulmate didn't love him for something specific. Something that Zuko would do or say or some way that he would exist and they wouldn’t love him.</p>
<p>Yes, this hurt more, so he forgot about the words and ignored the voice in the back of his head, urging him to find the soulmate and prove that he was worthy of love.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the day of Black Sun, Sokka shut his eyes to chase away tears. He closed his eyes to try and shut away the image of his father getting smaller in the distance.</p>
<p>He squeezed his eyes tightly, but couldn’t ignore the words that danced in the blackness. Taunting him. <em>You don’t need to be perfect</em>. Teasing him with the thought that he was enough as is, the promise that his mistakes were ok, when they clearly weren’t.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the day of Black Sun, Sokka made a promise to prove that he could be perfect. He would rescue his father and execute a perfect plan. He would lead Aang to defeat the avatar and orchestrate the perfect end of the war.</p>
<p>Then his soulmate could look at him and say, <em>maybe you don’t need to be perfect, but I’m really glad that you are</em>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was after Zuko helped teach Aang fire bending, after he helped Sokka rescue his dad and girlfriend, after he helped Katara track down her mother’s murderer, that he came to peace with his words.</p>
<p>Because, maybe they weren’t everything. Maybe his soulmate was the outlier, and he could be loved. He looked at Toph, without her soulmate words, and thought that maybe having a soulmate wasn’t the most important thing in the world. He thought of his uncle and aunt; their words weren’t meant for each other, but they loved each other regardless, and he thought that maybe there were other kinds of love.</p>
<p>He sat at the fire with the others as the butt-end of Sokka’s jokes and Toph’s punches and smiled.</p>
<p><em>I want to love you</em> still echoed in his head, but not quite as loudly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One day, the war over and won and restoration in full swing, Sokka looked at the new Fire Lord.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One day, his father thoroughly defeated and a nation in front of him ready to be rebuilt, Zuko looked at his newest Water tribe ambassador.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The words didn’t burn a hole through Sokka’s conscience anymore, not when Zuko looked at him. They didn’t hold everything that he would never be over his head when Zuko kissed his cheek.</p>
<p>Sokka found himself, nineteen years after receiving his soul words, falling in love with Zuko. He found himself wondering what Zuko’s soulmate words were and wondering if he would read them in his own printing. If he was the one who would say them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Zuko found it a lot more difficult to believe that he was not loveable when Sokka was gazing at him. The words repeated in his head, but a smile from Sokka dismissed them.</p>
<p>He realized that he was steadily falling in love with his best friend. It was an obvious feeling, different from any form of love he had felt before. It hurt to think that maybe Sokka would say those words to him and they wouldn’t last. Still, Zuko wondered if it was a tight tidy cursive that was written on Sokka’s chest.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was early in the morning at the beginning of summer when Sokka held Zuko in his arms, rubbing his back and hoping that a soothing voice would chase away tears.</p>
<p>“I don’t know why you’re still here,” Zuko sniffled. It was after a late night of frustrating negotiations that had ultimately failed and then a restless sleep filled with nightmares.</p>
<p>“I don’t deserve you,” he continued, crying anew. “I don’t even know why you love me.”</p>
<p>Sokka hugged him tighter at this and whispered into his hair words so quietly he almost missed them. “I want to. I want to love you, Zuko, so of course I’m still here.”</p>
<p>Zuko cried even harder. This was the meaning he had hoped but was too afraid to entertain. He clung to Sokka, his soulmate, and sobbed until he couldn’t anymore. Then he drew back and raised his shirt so Sokka could see the words, his words, written there.</p>
<p>Sokka smiled at him and pulled him into another hug.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was late at night in the middle of winter when Zuko interrupted Sokka in the training room. He hoped that kind words and a warm embrace could ease whatever stress had Sokka limping on the way to their room.</p>
<p>“I feel so useless sometimes,” Sokka said as he stared at the ceiling. This meant he was trying not to cry.</p>
<p>“It’s just,” he continued, “I feel like the other ambassadors don’t listen to me. And I know my ideas are good, but then I think they need to be better. And I don’t know if I’m good enough for you.”</p>
<p>The tears had fallen now, and Zuko pulled his soulmate into an embrace. “I love you so much Sokka. And you are enough exactly as you are. You don’t need to be perfect for me or for anyone.”</p>
<p>Sokka heard them this time. He listened, and understood the meaning, and he believed it. He broke the hug and pressed their foreheads together. Then he leaned back and opened his jacket to show Zuko the writing that both of them knew matched his.</p>
<p>Zuko traced his fingers along the words and then pulled Sokka into a hug again.</p>
<p>“I love you,” he whispered.</p>
<p>“I love you,” Sokka whispered back.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Most soulmates said, that after a whole lifetime of wondering what your words mean, hearing them for the first time was like having a light turned on in a room you had memorized by feel.</p>
<p>Most soulmates said this with a smile on their faces and with their hands linked together.</p>
<p>Sokka and Zuko, soulmates, sighed into their embrace and thought that they agreed with them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Gah soulmate AUs am i right?? I think I'm going to make this a series in this soulmate universe so, yeah</p>
<p>I hope you all enjoyed this and that you have a lovely day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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